Somadina's Adventures Chapter 2 Part 2.

Somadina's Adventures
Chapter 2 Part 2. Double Life: A Trip to Waltadot

***
Somadina hadn’t heard the loud horn blaring at the gate probably because of the dream she was just waking up from now. She turned the electricity deprived television off and rushed through the front door to the gate. Her dad must have been there for long because he was now standing beside the car, one hand ready to push down the button for the horn; he was physically fuming. He shouted gibes at her as she hurriedly pulled the gate open; she stood beside the gate and waited for him to drive through.

She scanned the contents of the car as she walked behind her father into the house empty-handed; he was carrying everything he had brought home and was angrily heading to the back door which was locked inside. She ran in through the front door to open it but wasn’t quick enough, resulting in more angry remarks from him. She took everything he was holding except his brief case and dropped them on a cupboard in the kitchen. He hadn’t brought Chimaobi, her baby brother home most likely because her mother had taken him to work.
Somadina padded sluggishly to her room oblivious of what to do on getting there; she was sure there wasn’t any possibility of her returning to sleep, her father’s bellows had cleared her blurred sight. She threw the door open and walked in, slamming it back as soon as she could. She fell on her bed, but without any sign of sleep she sat up on the bed. Looking around the room Somadina found a novel Lynda had given her just a day before their school’s closure. She picked it up from her reading table and blew away the imaginary dust she believed to be on it, she laid back on the bed to read the book hoping she’d remember the last page she had read; she had made the decision of reading the book knowing it was terribly boring and would send her back to sleep. Her plan worked, she was soon blinking her eyes for the very last time, knowing her next blink would close her eyes.
***
A carriage zoomed past Miriam and Hzha as they stood beside a pavement watching the crew of ships offloading their goods from their ships. Miriam hadn’t known why she had without any excuse agreed to come in the first place but she felt it was because she believed she had no choice; she was meant to attend to the lady beside her at any time her lady desired and so it had to mean she didn’t have a say in her affairs. Speaking of attending to her lady, she also had no idea of what that meant; she hadn’t done anything for Hzha except carrying her long scarf which had been struggling to touch the floor ever since they began their stand beside the pavement.
Hzha had obviously came to the harbor to see a particular lad whom she said was working as a ship’s crew, a ship that only docked its anchor on days that Hzha had marked in her head. The next time she was sure to see him was next month but the ship still had a week to stay in the harbor before setting out to sea again.
Miriam had only been to the harbor on two occasions, one was when she had gone with Joe and it had been her first time of coming into a busy town, she had complained of ear problems the next day which had sent Joe into a fit of laughter which had started their usual game of silence. The second time she had come to the harbor was when she had accompanied her sister and her proletarian husband who oft spent most of his time in town: they had gotten to know each other at a fete that had taken place beside their house a year ago.
Miriam watched Hzha and the lad converse on the other side of the wet and puddle-endowed road whilst pulling up the falling coat. Being here had been her mistake, she, a stupid girl had allowed the talkative Hzha persuade her into keeping their departure unknown to her father; it wasn’t really only her persuasiveness that caused their coming to the harbor, she had also gotten tired of listening to the unending blabber from Hzha about town life. She was sure Hzha’s father would be angry if he knew of their current location, he had warned her of allowing his daughter go to the harbor without reporting back to him if and only if she couldn’t stop her from going. She brushed down with her fingers the furs on the coat while waiting for the other two to end their conversation. They both soon began laughing at a probable joke about Miriam who had seen them take quick glances at her. Hzha had most likely told him of her funny reactions to the different aspects of town life at the start of their trek to the harbor, but that hadn’t really been her fault; she was experiencing firsthand what town life was like, her greatest exposure to the irregularities and deficiencies of town life had been from stories her father had showered on her whilst they worked in the farm.
Another carriage drove past her.
Hzha left the lad’s side only when she caught sight of a faraway carriage which looked like her father’s. Miriam had been alerted by Hzha and could soon feel her heart pounding as fast as the flaps of the bird that had taken to the air when they got near it. Hzha led her down to the theatre just opposite the harbor’s main entrance, they had been asked to keep the scarf with the man sitting beside the theatre’s door. Miriam had done this reluctantly, knowing there was no way she was to enjoy the revue without a distracting scarf; her persona really hated sitting still for long.
They both spent the entire evening at the revue wishing they hadn’t come; Miriam was sure this was her wish, the emotional Hzha beside her seemed to be in another planet altogether.
Leaving the theatre and taking the coat from the man, they both headed towards the nearest exit.
‘Where are you from?’ Hzha asked a surprised Miriam who wasn’t expecting any conversation to commence between her and her lady.
‘Enugu—Dekatlon.’
‘Enugu or Dekatlon? I’ve never heard of any Enugu before!’
‘I’m Sorry, Dekatlon, Enugu is—is what we call our house in Dekatlon, I hope my mistake doesn’t make you angry!’
Hzha glared at her for sometime before laughing, she knew Miriam was only trying to be respectful to her, a Lady! But she didn’t have to be, she didn’t have to show or express it to such extents, she had told her father to bring Miriam to their house so she could have a friend and not a stooge.
‘You don’t always have to say you’re sorry, I don’t like that, it makes me feel like I’m castigating you by just asking you a question,’ she turned around a corner just at the edge of the walled theatre’s premises and continued down the dusty road.
‘Yes my lady!’ Miriam could see the anger building up in Hzha, she just told her to stop being a slave and she had done just that. Normally she wouldn’t have treated anyone with so much respect but now she felt her family depended on it so she had to be as servant-like as she could.
‘Alright,’ Hzha paused, staring at nothing in particular, ‘just forget I’m a lord’s daughter, treat me how you would a sister!’ she smiled, happy she had hopefully figured out how to get the new girl to stop being too formal, she must have probably been fed with lies that her family would get thrown out of their land, the only punishment she had ever seen a vassal get was being sold, it had only happened once and she knew well enough that Miriam wouldn’t get such as long as she was alive.
‘What would you say about going to a dance at Malick’s?’ Hzha asked.
‘Your father wouldn’t like that!’ Miriam watched Hzha smile, she knew it was because she had said ‘father’ instead of Lord Laryis. She had as Hzha, not talked like a slave.
‘Just for a little while, Staad said he’d be there.’
Miriam had heard her say Staad before in one of her numerous stories but she had concluded it was a name she’d never know the owner but after seeing the lad today she could conclude Hzha was talking about him.
‘Your father would get worried—he might punish me for allowing you stay out so late!’
Hzha heard punish and frowned, her last lady-in-waiting had been ‘punished’ and that was why she needed another one.
‘You’re right—you know how father becomes when he gets worried,’ she knew Miriam knew nothing about her father but her spirit had prompted her to say so, ‘the last time I made him anxious he got me locked up in my room for a whole week, when he eventually got tired of that, he made sure I was only able to walk around the compound, that was when I stopped eating so he eventually ended the castigation.’ Hzha walked into the carriage with Miriam whoentered through the other side, the horseman had obeyed her instruction to stay there and wait for them so she wouldn’t have to worry about her father seeing the carriage. If he was to say he had seen them at the harbor she now only had to deny and apply her various protective pretentious acts to make him drop the claim.
+++
The next day—Hzha pushed the window open to let the bright sunlight in, she turned to Miriam who was still in bed and watched her block her eyes from the light with a pillow. She walked to her and shook her vigorously with a simper on her face, she had been awaiting the day she’d finally get to do that to a sister other than her previous lady-in-waiting and it had come, her only problem now was the fear Miriam still had for her.
Miriam yawned loudly, hoping she’d open her eyes to see her room and a house with her baby brother in it, the last time she had slept she had woken up in her usual room, but now she had a lady to attend to and was living in a world where lords and ladies were still a thing.
Miriam watched Hzha wave at her, she turned away to the other side of the bed to wait for the sleep she believed would take her to her own world, away from this ennui world. She didn’t want anything to do with this world anymore; she wanted her real home and parents back even if it meant they’d stop her from touching her phone or using the television, she’d now obey her mom and stay glued to her reading table with a biology note book on it and a jotter beside.
Miriam waited for sleep to take over but it wouldn’t, now she wanted it the most it had deserted her. She soon turned around to a grinning Hzha who must have been thinking she just didn’t want to wake up, truth be told she didn’t, but then staying in bed would only prolong the pain she was feeling in her stomach and side. She had been forced by her second-life to sleep earlier than she usually did because of the boredom that came along with this world, if she had been at home, their television or her phone would have been her favorite companion all night long until she desired to sleep, now the reverse was the case; she was desirous of sleeping, but sleep was nowhere near.
Hzha dragged a reluctant Miriam into her bathroom and locked her there, she had told a servant to take a pail of water to her bathroom after she had taken her bath, they both had somewhere to be today and she didn’t intend to be late, Miriam had come to their house at the right time, and she didn’t want to spare anything in her quest to keep her entertained and eventually get her to act normal towards her.
Hzha walked to her dressing room and carefully picked out a dress for Miriam— after going through her bag she hadn’t found a cloth befitting of a lord’s daughter’s attendant, she had told a servant to throw the bag away so she wouldn’t get any excuse from a Miriam who she knew was prone to reject any dress she would present to her, she was sure Miriam wasn’t a normal vassal’s daughter, a normal one would have enjoyed what they had done the previous day, a regular low class girl would have been quick to accept her idea of going out for a dance.
She dropped the dress on her bed and then walked to her dressing table to fix her hair while waiting for Miriam to knock on the door after taking her bath.

‘You have to be fast in dressing up so we can leave,’ Hzha said as soon as Miriam walked out of the bathroom, she dumped the dress in her hands and walked back to the dressing table, ‘I don’t want to be here when Henkrik comes.’ Hzha ended, hoping the hesitant Miriam would be a little faster in going to the dressing room.
‘Who’s Henkrik?’ Miriam asked, taking the blue gown up to its full length, she gazed at it for sometime before deciding to try it on; she hadn’t seen her bag since she came out of the bathroom, if she had, then rejecting the cloth in her hands would have been easier.
‘Oh! Sometimes I forget you aren’t Popsy, my previous attendant,’ she got up from the chair in front of the dressing table and sat on the bed, ‘Henkrik— he’s father’s friend’s son, I’m supposed to marry him!’
‘I thought you liked Staad?’
‘I do like him, but father doesn’t approve of our meetings and probable union, he complains of his being of lower class than I am, but he is too quick to forget our house is full of such people, how couldn’t he see I’ll eventually begin liking someone like them?’ She looked at a staring Miriam who was now standing beside the door of the dressing room; the only remaining part in her dress up was the ribbon to be tied around her waist which was dangling from her hand, ‘Sorry I sounded like that, but you’re not of any lower class— you’re like a sister to me!’
‘You and I have only known each other for a day.’
‘I know, but you’re now stuck with me!’
Hzha led Miriam to the dressing table after tying the ribbon behind her; she applied a few substances on her face whilst putting on a faint smile as she looked at a Miriam who had shut her eyes tight to allow her work. She packed Miriam’s black long hair behind her back with a smaller ribbon and then made Miriam open her eyes to see the wonders she had done; wonders because Miriam hadn’t noticed her long hair since she entered the dream. Hzha who was standing behind her felt she was admiring the style of hair she now had, but Miriam knew better. She touched her hair to feel its realism, wondering how she hadn’t noticed it since she came into this dream. She smiled when a thought made her believe her second-life was just teasing her with the long hair which weren’t what she had in reality.
She gazed for long into the mirror whilst trying hard to believe it was really her hair. Hzha pulled her towards the dressing room door where she kept their shoes. They had to leave now if they were to be at the amphitheatre early enough to sit beside the princess before the other ladies get there!
***
Somadina yawned herself out of bed, she soon remembered she hadn’t kept her father’s lunch on the dining table, she was sure he would begin yelling her name anytime from now if he didn’t hear the promising sounds of aspoon colliding with the sides of pots.
She dished out his meal onto a ceramic plate whilst trying to think through her dream, it had felt more real than her life and she probably knew why—. She carried carefully the food onto the dining table when she got to it, hoping the rice grains close to the edges hadn’t fallen onto the white tray which the plate was on. She hurried back to the kitchen and pulled out a glass cup from a cupboard, which she after rinsing filled with water from a filter in their dining room. She made sure a spoon was beside the plate and on the tray before calling her father to the dining room.
Soon she felt a slight pull on her clot coupled with a strong need to lie on her bed, she already knew what this meant but had to check if her brother was the one pulling. She looked down to her side and couldn’t see a crawling baby; then she walked back to her room to sit on her reading chair.
Somadina pulled out a text book from the stack on her table, she dropped it before her and began flipping through the pages one after the other hoping something would get her attention. She placed her head on the table, waiting for the constantly bugging thoughts of her dream to leave her head, she yawned a few times and attempted raising her head up but she couldn’t; an external force was pushing her head down but she wasn’t ready to give up, not now, not ever: until she thought up a way of leaving the dream whenshe wanted to, she had to stay awake and stay away from any bed.